Curt Sampson wrote:
> [...]
> But I'd be interested to see what the total investment looks like, when
> doing it on Linux, including:
>
> o the code added to the system by internal programmers
> o the bugfixes and changes made to Linux by internal programmers
> o the code and time put into the build system
> o all of the code written for testing
> o time spent doing testing
>
> I have tracked source (i.e., imported it into an internal system and
> done maintenance on it) from other systems before, and that's a lot more
> work than you'd think, especially if you're going to do the kind of
> testing that a consumer device needs.
>
> I'd be curious to know how much of the code in one of these phones
> really is Linux code.
I guess that depends a lot on your definition of "Linux" - as you hint,
you need a fair bit more than just a kernel for everything to work, so
perhaps you are really after the rms "GNU/Linux" combo, right?
IMHO, there are a few things to gain from running a "GNU/Linux" context
for development:
* You can initially develop on boxes that use the same CPU (or perhaps a
faster version), but have lots more memory etc (this is what the HH
people do). Later you can trim it all down to the critical size.
* When you run into strangeness, you can fairly easily recompile the
code on some other CPU to see if it makes any difference (porting can
often help you find bugs). Simple apps (pygtk etc) can be developed on
completely different boxes.
* The obvious one: If you find a problem, you can fix it instead of just
working around it, since you have the FULL source (perhaps some people
have that for Symbian etc too, but most people don't - in any case, the
useless docs are no replacement for source). Or at least you can work
around it with open eyes.
Perhaps (as you hint) the economical gain may depend on how many and
what kind of problems you run into, so then the main remaining benefit
would (as usual) be freedom.
/ Jonas
--
Jonas Petersson | XMS Penvision | mailto:Jonas.Petersson@xms.se
Box 3294, Västgötegatan 13, S-600 03 Norrköping | http://www.xms.se/
Tel: +46 11 400 13 00 | Dir: +46 11 400 13 05 | Fax: +46 11 10 30 50
Received on Tue Nov 30 15:51:03 2004